February 7, 2013 | 3:21 PM

Cleveland school district CEO Eric Gordon said yesterday the state auditor has found “no evidence of intentional wrongdoing” in its audit of the Cleveland school district’s attendance records. But the Cleveland school district’s past attendance records are still unable to be audited, meaning it’s impossible to confirm that the district followed state attendance laws.

The auditor’s office declined to comment specifically on Gordon’s statement, but auditor’s office spokesperson Carrie Bartunek said determining intent was not within the scope of the auditor’s work.

Auditor of State Dave Yost is investigating whether schools across Ohio improperly altered student records in other to improve their state report card grades. Cleveland is one of six Ohio school districts the state auditor and the Ohio Department of Education have already found to have engaged in the practice, which the auditor calls “scrubbing.”

But Gordon said it’s a leap to suggest that the district cheated by designing procedures that would improve the district’s report card ratings. He pointed to the district’s highly mobile population, with students often switching schools during the year.

At an event at Ideastream in Cleveland Thursday, Gordon also said the fact that many Cleveland students move into and out of the district or among schools during the course of the year is not the reason why it did not maintain the required attendance records:

“We did not say mobility was the reason that we were not able to be auditable. Although [we] did point out mobility is a significant factor challenging us.”

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Comments

Bill from Cleveland

Thank you for this well written article the
first paragraph of which was particularly insightful.

If only CEO Gordon’s thoughts were so well
crafted…

When the audit established that CEO Gordon’s
records are neither auditable nor comply with state laws CEO Gordon asserts
the Cleveland School District’s failure to follow state law is “not
intentional.”

So is it CEO Gordon’s defense that our school
district’s failure results from reckless or negligent behavior?

And now that CEO Gordon has been reminded
of the school district’s duty to develop auditable records, doesn’t the
district’s ongoing failure to do so rise to the level of intentionally breaking
the law?

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StateImpact Ohio is a collaboration among WCPN, WKSU and WOSU. Reporters Amy Hansen and Mark Urycki travel the state to report on the state of education in Ohio, where it’s heading, and how it affects you. Read their reports on this site and listen to them on public radio stations across Ohio.